Three Arctic municipalities are joining forces with maritime stakeholders to establish a new group focused on safety in Arctic waters.

The Arctic Waterway Safety Committee is billed as a “group focused on creating best practices to ensure a safe, efficient, and predictable … environment for all users of the arctic waterways.”

Committee members include leaders of several northwest Alaska communities, including Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor Reggie Joule, City of Nome Mayor Denise Michels and North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower.

Other stakeholders include representatives from regional subsistence hunting groups — like the Eskimo Walrus Commission and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission — as well as tribal governments, the oil and gas industry, and maritime pilots.

Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor Reggie Joule said the new committee would allow all Arctic stakeholders a “voice at the table” — strengthening communication between local stakeholders and marine industry members. He said the committee will be a forum for dialogue that transcends political and tribal boundaries, just as the Arctic spans many borders.

“A lot of this is to shore up communications,” said Joule. “It’s being driven, though — not by industry or NGOs — but by the people who live on those coastlines, in those waterways.”

In a written statement, the North Slope mayor’s office said the committee will engage “the marine industry in developing best practices for safe vessel operations in the Arctic.” Committee members will also use local knowledge to alert mariners “when vessels would interfere with subsistence hunting activities, environmentally sensitive areas to be avoided, and patterns of ice movement.”

While the committee’s lasting role in any national or international policy decisions has yet to be determined, Joule said he’s hopeful that a formal body like the committee will lend weight to the voices of regional stakeholders.

Tribal co-management for subsistence resources was the focus at the Alaska Federation of Native’s work session on food safety Thursday.

The session—one of four covering topics like public safety, education, and climate change—highlighted current co-management programs for subsistence resources like whales and walrus, with the aim of applying similar practices to rehabilitate Chinook salmon stocks on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.

Mike Conner, deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior, said the idea of spreading resource management out between state, federal, and tribal groups has appeal, and it’s one idea he said the Department of the Interior is looking to test “administratively” in a pilot project along the Kuskokwim salmon fishery.

“Bottom line is, we are going to be moving forward with this idea, we have a lot of work to do with the subsistence users themselves,” Conner said at the podium. “There’s a process under ANILCA to establish this local advisory council. We need to work with the state of Alaska, and we need to, of course, work with the community most affected in the Kuskokwim River Drainage, and also, all of you.”

A successful “proof of concept,” Conner added, could mean expanding co-management to other salmon fisheries in Alaska.

Myron Naneng, the head of the Association of Village Council Presidents, has been working to establish an inter-tribal fish commission for communities along the Kuskokwim River. With federal management taking over for state leadership on the Kuskokwim river system this past summer, Naneng said the inter-tribal commission organization would take the lead in dealing with the state and the feds in any co-management project.

“Because of the need for food security, our people have made a commitment to try to establish the inter-tribal fish commission. We don’t need to be cooperating with the management people. We need to help them make good decisions that are a benefit to the resource. And eventually every one of us will benefit from that.”

Existing co-management regimes exist in Alaska. Harry Brower Jr., a whaling captain in Barrow and the chairman of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, spoke to the commission’s successful co-management with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that dates back to 1980.

But Nome’s Vera Metcalf—speaking on behalf of the Eskimo Walrus Commission, another co-management program in the state—cautioned that co-management may be a worthwhile goal, but will remain an unrealized dream without money to back it up.

“There’s really not a level playing ground here since ANOs [Alaska Native organizations] continue to receive little and decreasing amounts of funding, at the unilateral decisions of agencies, although the urgency and complexity of the issues affecting our environment and traditional subsistence reliance of walrus continue to increase,” Metcalf said.

“Our funding decreases just about every year,” she said with frustration. “We are expected to do more for less.”

A co-management scheme for Kuskokwim king salmon isn’t the only co-management project moving forward, however; the food security work session closed with a look at plans from the Ahtna region to pursue co-management programs near the Copper River through federal legislation.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/10/27/tribal-co-management-focus-of-afn-food-security-panel/feed/2Pacific Walrus Removed from Unusual Mortality Eventhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/14/pacific-walrus-removed-from-unusual-mortality-event/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/14/pacific-walrus-removed-from-unusual-mortality-event/#commentsWed, 14 May 2014 20:01:11 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=9052Pacific Walrus are officially off the hook when it comes to a mysterious illness that’s been plaguing seals and walrus in the region.]]>http://knom.org/wp-audio/2014/05/2014-05-14-Walrus-UME-delisting.mp3

Pacific Walrus are officially off the hook when it comes to a mysterious illness that’s been plaguing seals and walrus in the region.

An unknown disease swept through seal and walrus populations along the Bering Strait and the North Slope starting in the summer of 2011.

Up to 300 seals were found suffering from hair loss, skin sores, and unusually lethargic behavior. Dozens of walruses were also found with similar sores.

A handful of seals also died, causing marine mammal regulators to declare an unusual mortality event (UME) to monitor the disease. But with only three reports of sick walrus in the last year, walrus have been taken off the UME watch list.

Vera Metcalf is the Director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission at Kawerak. Referencing the delisting of walrus, Metcalf said, “I think the move is the right direction. I know that our coastal communities and subsistence hunters have been observing changes in the environment, but fortunately, they’ve been harvesting very close to healthy walruses.”

No new sick seals have been reported since 2012, but Julie Speegle with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association says seals are still being watched.

Speegle said, “The UME is still open for ice seals. We do continue to see what seems to be pretty healthy ice seals, but they seem to be survivors from past illness.”

These survivors are seals displaying hair loss but otherwise healthy behavior and body condition. Four survivors have been reported this year.

Gay Sheffield is with the Marine Advisory Program in Nome. She says the lack of answers is worrying

“This has been a big food security, public health concern,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield said seals and walrus are safe to eat at the discretion of customary and traditional practices, and there have been no reports of the infection transferring to humans, dogs, or other animals.

Alaska and eastern Russia share a single population of marine mammals that enter into the others’ waters during certain life stages, making the UME an international concern.

Joel Garlich-Miller is a walrus biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the Service has worked closely with its Russian counterparts throughout the event.

With current political tensions between the two countries, he says collaboration continues just with cumbersome red tape.

“We just need to make sure,” Garlich-Miller said, “all these communication lines are reviewed at a State Department level. And once we have the green light on that, we can continue to go about our business.”

Garlich-Miller says maintaining dialogue between the two countries is critical.

“We absolutely need to be closely coordinated with our Russian counterparts,” Garlich-Miller explained, “to track the population status, evaluate threats to habitats, make sure that subsistence harvest levels are appropriately monitored for sustainable harvest. It’s essential for the continued conservation management of the species.”

Investigation into the UME continues. The North Slope Arctic Borough and the University of Alaska Fairbanks have begun testing infected seal carcasses for radiation from the Japanese Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster. Results should be released in July.

Residents who spot sick or unusual wildlife are asked to report their finding to the Marine Advisory Program at 1-855-443-2397 or the Eskimo Walrus Commission at 1-877-277-4392.